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If your desire for 'good' is based on greed, it is not good, but greed.

Idries Shah

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Idries Shah
Age: 72 †
Born: 1924
Born: June 16
Died: 1996
Died: November 23
Author
Collector Of Fairy Tales
Teacher
Writer
Simla
Arkon Daraul
Greed
Based
Desire
Good

More quotes by Idries Shah

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There is a Persian proverb: 'To test that which has been tested is ignorance.' To try to test something without the means of testing is even worse.
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A certain person may have, as you say, a wonderful presence I do not know. What I do know is that he has a perfectly delightful absence.
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The laziness of adolescence is a rehearsal for the incapacity of old age.
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Right time, right place, right people equals success. Wrong time, wrong place, wrong people equals most of the real human history.
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To 'see both sides' of a problem is the surest way to prevent its complete solution. Because there are always more than two sides.
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When you realize the difference between the container and the content, you will have knowledge.
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The Path is not to be found anywhere except in human service
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Do not try to be humble: learn humility.
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Anyone can see that an ass laden with books remains a donkey. A human being laden with the undigested results of a tussle with thoughts and books, however, still passes for wise.
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Sometimes a pessimist is only an optimist with extra information.
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It is not important to have said a thing first, or best - or even most interestingly. What is important is to say it on the right occasion.
Idries Shah
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Like the bat, the Sufi is asleep to 'things of the day' - the familiar struggle for existence which the ordinary man finds all-important - and vigilant while others are asleep. In other words, he keeps awake the spiritual attention dormant in others. That 'mankind sleeps in a nightmare of unfulfillment' is a commonplace of Sufi literature
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You are adrift while you still think that a means is an end.
Idries Shah
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A generous person may not have wisdom: but, unlike others, he has the means to gain it.
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Learn to be as analytical about things of which you are credulous as you are of those which you criticise.
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When the ignorant have become numerous or powerful enough, they have been referred to by a special name. This names is 'the Wise'.
Idries Shah
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History is not usually what has happened. History is what some people have thought to be significant.
Idries Shah
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If you can turn a murderer into a mere thief, you are making progress.
Idries Shah
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One cannot learn from someone whom one distrusts.
Idries Shah
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The learned person who only talks will never Penetrate to the inner heart of humans.
Idries Shah